The “Schengen area” crisis is not merely a crisis in solidarity, but also in the trust. It makes for a race against time whose conclusion must allow us to reinforce Schengen. This issue is dealt with in this Viewpoint by Y. Bertoncini and A. Vitorino.

The “Schengen area” crisis is not merely a crisis in solidarity, but also, primarily, a crisis in the trust between co-owners that have no wish to move out of their shared abode. It makes for a race against time between bringing back national border controls and the Europeanisation of external border controls, a race whose conclusion must allow us to reinforce Schengen. In this Viewpoint, Yves Bertoncini and António Vitorino focus on three key issues:

1. Addressing the migrant crisis: enforced solidarity, ongoing mistrust2. Addressing the terror threat: an instinctive solidarity, but a trust that has yet to be built 3. A crisis of co-owners to solve this Spring… or in 2018

They conclude that the race against time between national and European border controls will be a fools’ game if it obscures the fact that the essential thing for Europeans is to act beyond borders and attack the source of con­flicts that have created a massive flow of refugees and terrorist safe havens.